It was close to last Christmas before North Carolina A&T won its first men's basketball game for new head coach Monté Ross. You could say that, as Ross is into his second season, Christmas came early.
The Aggies got a career-high 26 points from sophomore Ryan Forrest in an 82-73 victory over The Citadel on Sunday in Charleston, South Carolina, to split their two-game, out-of-state road trip. They lost to Wake Forest in Winston-Salem.
The Aggies go for two in a row when they host Morgan State on Wednesday at 7 p.m.
In helping to give Ross and A&T (2-2) their second victory this season, Forrest shot 9-for-20 from the floor and 8-for-9 from the free throw line. Forrest scored 25 points twice for Northwestern State last season.
N.C. A&T's Ryan Forrest brings the ball up court for the Aggies against Wake Forest on Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024 at Joel Coliseum.
Another sophomore, Jahnathan Lamothe, scored 14 of his 18 points in the second half on 5-for-8 shooting from the floor and 3-for-4 from 3-point range. Junior Camian Shell added 12 points and Landon Glasper finished with 10 for the Aggies.
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Brody Fox scored 19 points in the first half for the Bulldogs, who despite shooting 50% in the period, only had a 39-36 lead at the break.
"We started off slow defensively," Ross said. "We know we are going to be able to score. But the key for us was slowing down Brody Fox. He killed us in the first half, but I thought Jahnathan Lamothe did an unbelievable job of stepping up and slowing him down. And that's what we must do because we are a work in progress defensively. If we keep getting better defensively, we will be okay."
In the second half, a Lamothe 3 was followed by a steal and a layup from Glasper that gave the Aggies their first lead since the 12:46 mark of the first half. Glasper was fouled on the play and completed the three-point play to put the Aggies ahead 53-51. Fox answered with a short jumper in the lane to tie the game at 53-53 with 15 minutes left.
N.C. A&T's Jahnathan Lamothe rakes his hand across the face of Wake Forest's Tre'Von Spillers as spillers dunks the ball from in an NCAA basketball game on Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024 at Joel Coliseum.
The two teams tied two more times before Forrest gave the Aggies the lead for good with two free throws for a 66-64 advantage with 9:19 to go. Forrest followed his free throws with a turnaround jump shot. A Lamothe 3-pointer and a Forrest jump shot completed A&T's 9-0 run to put them up 73-64 with 6:53 remaining on the clock.
The Citadel (3-2) scored the next five points to get the gap down to four, but answered with a Nikolaos Chitikoudis layup and two free throws from Forrest. A Bulldogs turnover led to a Chitikoudis putback that gave the Aggies a 79-69 edge at the 1:23 mark.
N.C. A&T head coach Monte Ross directs his players in the first half against Wake Forest on Thursday at Joel Coliseum.
"If we can take care of the basketball like we did today with the way these guys get up and down the floor and like to score the basketball, that's a big plus for us," Ross said. "We preach taking care of the ball, but it's difficult to go on the road and take care of the basketball. We have a little mantra that we use: 'The way you get road wins is you make your free throws, take care of the basketball, and play good defense.' We at least had two of the three."
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